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SUPAERO Primary Ground Station for HETE 2

As far back as 1995, SUPAERO was involved in the HETE project  by furnishing one of the three Primary Ground Station. Two MOU were signed with the MIT Center for Space Research, one in 1995 and the other in august 1997 when it was decided to build HETE 2.
The PGS has been designed by three laboratories of SUPAERO :
- The Aeronautics and Space Center (CAS)
- The Informatics and Automatics laboratory (LIA)
- The Electronics and Physics laboratory (LEP).
Manufactured, integrated and fully tested in Toulouse, it will be moved to Cayenne  (French Guiana) at the Institut des Etudes Supérieures de Guyane (Antilles-Guyane University).

 The station is comprised of the following items :

A 3.0 meter parabolic antenna and its positioner
A supervision PC computer with associated interface board
A RF uplink and downlink system with associated modulator and demodulator
A Ground station interface board (GSRFIB/G2E)
A GPS system
An anemometer
 

The station is fully autonomous and works according to the following process : Before each visibility (15 daily visibilities) a measurement of the wind velocity is performed to allow the activation of the station as long as this velocity is low enough. The time of the supervision PC is updated by the GPS to ensure the accuracy of orbital parameters and tracking computation . The positioner tracks the satellite as soon as it is visible. When the elevation is over 5°, the RF system is activated to allow the uplink and downlink dialog with the satellite. At the end of the visibility, the positioner points the zenith to minimize the wind effort on the antenna and the station is desactivated. The working of the station is continually supervised, displayed by indicator lights and a log book. Each day, the orbital parameters (TLE NORAD) are updated via Internet link. After each visibility, a connection is automatically established from SUPAERO Toulouse to display the state of the station.

The supervisor PC display